Part 29 (1/2)

In a miserable old carriage, attended by a Prussian escort, Jules Favre was borne away to his terrible interview with Bismarck, leaving d'Herisson behind. Favre did not come back for many hours. His first words to his aide-de-camp were: ”Oh, my dear fellow, I was wrong to go without you. What have I not suffered?”

He had been taken at once to a very modest house in Versailles, where Bismarck had his quarters. After the first salutations Jules Favre said that he came to renew the negotiations broken off at Ferrieres. Here Bismarck interrupted him, saying: ”The situation is changed. If you are still going to say, 'Not an inch, not a stone,' as you did at Ferrieres, we may break off at once. My time is valuable, and yours too.” Then suddenly he added: ”Your hair has grown much grayer than it was at Ferrieres.” Jules Favre replied that that was due to anxiety and the cares of government. The chancellor answered that the Government of Paris had put off a long time asking for peace, and that he had been on the eve of making an arrangement with an envoy from Napoleon III. He then explained that it would be easy for him to bring back the emperor and to force France to receive him; that Napoleon could collect an army of a hundred thousand men among the French prisoners of war in Germany, etc.; and he added: ”After all, why should I treat with you? Why should I give your irregular Republic an appearance of legality by signing an armistice with its representative? What are you but rebels? Your emperor if he came back would have the right to shoot every one of you.”

”But if he came back,” cried Jules Favre, ”all would be civil war and anarchy.”

”Are you so sure of that?” said the chancellor. ”Anyhow, a civil war in France could not affect Germany.”

”But, M. le Comte, are you not afraid of reducing us to despair, of exasperating our resistance?”

”Your resistance!” cried Bismarck. ”Are you proud of your resistance?

If General Trochu were a German, I would have him shot this evening.

You have no right, for the sake of mere military vainglory, to risk the lives of two millions of people. The railroad tracks have been torn up, and if we cannot lay them down again in two days, we know that a hundred thousand people in Paris will die of famine.

Don't talk of resistance, it is criminal.”

Jules Favre, put entirely out of countenance by Bismarck's tone, merely insisted that in pity to France there should be no question of subjecting her to the ignominy of being again made over to her deposed emperor. Before parting, Bismarck requested him to write down such conditions of peace as seemed to him reasonable, in order that they might discuss them the next day.[1]

[Footnote 1: My copy of d'Herisson's book has a pencil note at this place, written by a friend then at Versailles: ”Bismarck rode after Jules Favre when he set out on his return, and thrust into his carriage an enormous sausage.”]

When that day came, the chancellor, having had interviews with his sovereign and Von Moltke, submitted his own propositions. They were seven in number:--

I. An armistice for twenty-one days.

II. Disarmament of the French army, to remain in Paris as prisoners of war.

III. The soldiers to give up arms and banners; officers to keep their swords.

IV. The armistice to extend all over France.

V. Paris to pay indemnity, and give up its forts to the Prussians.

VI. The Germans not to enter Paris during the armistice.

VII. Elections to be held throughout France for a National a.s.sembly charged to consider conditions of peace.

Some slight modifications were made in these hard terms, which were signed Jan. 28, 1871.

As aide-de-camp and secretary to the French minister, d'Herisson was present at all the interviews between Bismarck and his princ.i.p.al.

When the terms, proposed by Germany were reported by Jules Favre to the Committee of Defence, they were thought less severe than had been feared.

The next morning Favre and d'Herisson were at Versailles by dawn.

Bismarck, who was an early riser, soon appeared, and took the minister and his aide-de-camp to his study. There the two men talked, and the secretary took notes of the conversation.

Bismarck and Favre presented a great contrast. Bismarck was then fifty-five years of age; Jules Favre was six years older. Bismarck wore the uniform of a colonel of White Cuira.s.siers,--a white coat, a white cap, and yellow tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs. He seemed like a colossus, with his square shoulders and his mighty strength. Jules Favre, on the contrary, was tall and thin, bowed down by a sense of his position, wearing a black frock-coat that had become too wide for him, with his white hair resting on its collar. He was especially urgent that the National Guard in Paris should retain its arms. He consented to the disarmament of the Mobiles and the army, but he said it would be impossible to disarm the National Guard. At length Bismarck yielded this point, but with superior sagacity remarked: ”So be it. But believe me you are doing a foolish thing. Sooner or later you will be sorry you did not disarm those unquiet spirits. Their arms will be turned against you.”

When the question was raised concerning the indemnity to be paid by Paris, Bismarck said, laughing, that Paris was so great a lady, it would be an indignity to ask of her less than a milliard of francs ($200,000,000). The ransom was finally settled at two hundred millions of francs ($40,000,000).

”The dinner-hour having arrived, the chancellor invited us,” says d'Herisson, ”to take seats at his table. Jules Favre, who wanted to write out carefully the notes I had taken, begged to have his dinner sent up to him; so I alone followed the chancellor to the dining-room, where about a dozen military and civil functionaries were a.s.sembled, but all were in uniform. The chancellor, who sat at the head of the table, placed me on his right. There was plenty of ma.s.sive silver, belonging evidently to a travelling case. The only deficiency was in light, the table being illuminated by only two wax candles stuck in empty wine-bottles. This was the only evidence of a time of war.”

As soon as the chancellor was seated, he began to eat with a good appet.i.te, talking all the time, and drinking alternately beer and champagne from a great silver goblet marked with his initials. The conversation was in French. Suddenly the chancellor remembered having met M. d'Herisson eight years before at the Princess Mentzichoff's, and their relations became those of two gentlemen who recognize each other in good society.